The Persian Gulf is Part of the Habitual Range of the Arabian Sea Humpback Whale Population

Abstract

The humpback whale has long been considered a rare straggler into the Persian Gulf, however new evidence contradicts this concept. We here critically review published and new records for Megaptera novaeangliae occurrence in the Gulf for the period 1883-2017. Of eight authenticated records (6 specimens, 2 live-sightings), seven are contemporary cases while one is a mid-Holocene specimen from UAE. An additional four are possible but unsubstantiated reports. Four regional, current, range states are confirmed, i.e. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. Four of the five newly reported cases are from Iran's coastal waters. We conclude that the Persian Gulf is part of the habitual range of the Arabian Sea humpback whale population, and has been since at least the mid-Holocene. It is unknown whether frequent passage occurs through the Strait of Hormuz or whether whales are (semi)resident. The low abundance of this endangered population and frequent deleterious anthropogenic events, particularly ship strikes and net entanglements, are cause for major concern. In view of its historical and taxonomic relevance, the formal description of Megaptera indica Gervais, 1883, from Iraq, now thought to be a subspecies M. novaeangliae indica, is here translated from French. On a new species of the genus Megaptera, originating from the Bay of Basora [Al-Basra] (Persian Gulf) by H.-P. Gervais (1883). Translated and annotated [in square brackets] by one of us (KVW. » The genus Megaptera, as established by the authors of the Ostéographie des Cétacés [i.e. Van Beneden & Gervais, 1880] comprehends four distinct species; the first two, the Megaptera Boops [(Fabricius, 1780)] and Megaptera Lalandii [(Fisher, 1829)] are established with certainty; the two others, Megaptera Novae-Zelandiae [Gray, 1864] and Megaptera Kuzira [Gray, 1850] are described only provisionally as their characteristics are still insufficiently clear. » Although Mr. [Pierre-Joseph] Van Beneden, in a recent work, has come back from the idea that he formulated 20 years ago that there exists but a single cosmopolitan species of Megaptera, namely Megaptera Boops, we think that we can demonstrate from a study that we undertook, through the comparison of new material accumulated at the anatomical collections of the Paris Museum, that the law of species distribution established for the [families] Balaenidae and Balaenopteridae, has to apply also to Megaptera and that the number of species of this group have to be recognised as three. These are the Megaptera Boops, inhabiting the Northern Hemisphere; the Megaptera Lalandii which frequents the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Megaptera of the Persian Gulf, which is the subject of the present note, a species which is supposed to inhabit the Indian Ocean and to which we propose to give the name Megaptera indica, since the individual obtained for the collections of the Museum would only have penetrated the Persian Gulf accidentally, from where it was shipped to us. » The size of the humpback whale of the Persian Gulf, which ha...

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